What makes a celebrity a celebrity? It’s how they carry themselves and how they act, and even most importantly, how they look. When you get some money coming in, you can start spending it on things that make you seem even bigger than you are. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy of legendary stature. So if you want to seem like a big shot or a big deal, you gotta first act like one. This can be done if you have great wealth, but most of us don’t have access to that, so we gotta fake it. Here are some ways to seem bigger than you are so that maybe you’ll eventually be that big.

Dress the Part

You can’t dress like a schlub and have people think you’re anything but a schlub. Look at New York City hipsters – they dress in fancy expensive clothes that are designed to look casual and off the beaten path. But those tank tops and skinny jeans are actually ~$100 garments bought with their parents’ trust fund money. Don’t be fooled! You can’t actually just go into a Goodwill and walk out with a cool, hipster wardrobe. However, with the proper eye, you can find some good stuff probably not at Goodwill, but at some other consignment places that will sell you some cool clothes more in the $20-$30 range. Or even going to H&M is not a bad call. Their whole market brand is looking sharp and European but being terrible quality but it doesn’t matter because you at least will be looking cool as the stitching comes undone.

Get a Slightly – But Only Slightly – Used Car

You will not impress anyone with a 18 year old Honda Odyssey you bought from your grandmother because she’s blind and can’t drive anymore. However, if you need a new set of wheels, you should definitely go ahead and get something a few model years old. You will save tons on that monthly car payment, and that kind of savings can be used to shop at H&M. It all comes full circle. Check out www.ocauto.com and you’ll see that the prices on cars even just 2 or 3 years old are way more reasonable than something fresh off the boat. Or off the trailer. You get the idea. It’s always a good idea to start shopping at http://www.ocauto.com and go from there.

iPhone yes, Verizon no

If you want any sort of stature in this world, you have to have an iPhone. I mean, you look at someone with a Samsung and you can’t help but wonder: do you even have any self respect? Go back to your basement! But though we all agree you have to have an iPhone, that doesn’t mean you have to pay the exorbitant prices for Verizon or, God forbid, AT&T. You can use T Mobile or Sprint. Though their service is laughably bad, you can save money and once you hop on your buddy’s wifi, it won’t really matter that no one has thought to put up a Sprint tower in your city.

It seemed like yesterday when Jonathan, I and Matt sat in our office trying to figure out how to deal with our Chevy Sonic. In case you haven’t acquired the past couple issues, last spring we had been given the challenge of building a Sonic for that SEMA show. Don’t get us wrong, we love to build cars, nevertheless the Sonic isn’t exactly what you’d call the ultimate tuner car. There’s little-to-no aftermarket support, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t see any potential. Turning it into a showstopper that will grab the eye of a large number of SEMA attendees wasn’t gonna be as easy as bolting on a widebody and throwing a turbo kit in, however. We didn’t wish to follow the same paths our brothers at Modified and Import Tuner were taking. They are also building Sonics and already selected the two obvious themes-VIP and track. This forced us to believe outside the box and come up with something innovative.

The first thing we asked ourselves is, exactly what do we do throughout the day? If you’re like me, I check my phone every twenty seconds to stalk people on Facebook, double tap photos on Instagram and waste time watching YouTube, . I also can’t stand silence so I have music playing whether I’m at work, in a car, at home and obviously up in da club. With that said, we each checked out each other and said, why not put all these things we use every day in our Chevy Sonic? Brilliant!

A game plan for awesomeness was formulated through the help of Mike Vu of MVDesignz. Mike has been around in charge of several crazy show cars including our superhero-themed Kias built last here. He was the perfect guy to bounce ideas forth and back with and inevitably would be our go-to for the entire build that will focus on connectivity, technology and music.

Bumps for the Trunk

If we’re going to concentrate on technology and music, we’re going to need some bumpin’ audio. And why not include a DJ setup, too? ! Pioneer hooked us track of their entire catalog which includes two 12 subs in a custom trunk enclosure, followed by five 600-watt amplifiers. Front and center is the DJ equipment-two CDJ900s and a DJM-900 Nexus mixer. All the speakers in the car will also be upgraded to Pioneer and also the two rear headrests are being modified to house some 6.5 two-way speakers, as Jonathan models for us. The goal with all the audio and DJ setup isn’t in order to throw some kick-ass parties but in order toWhat the hell is the fact funny lookin’ wood thing Mike Vu’s building? Well it’s a custom rear console that’s going to house two LG projectors. We’ll be able to surf the net and run apps via these projectors that will project onto the rear windows. A special film will likely be applied so it will be easy to view. Mike’s also added another projector within the rear hatch. The new rear console may also feature a telescoping camera that’ll rise straight out of the roof and get a 360-degree overview outside the Sonic. No, we’re not joking! The idea with all the car is to have video cameras all-around that will allow us to stream to the web via MiFi modules and a wireless router. So, basically, it’ll be a rolling voyeur cam. We’ll have cameras that show the passenger and driver, the DJ setup and, of course, the telescoping exterior cam. A set of iPads will be mounted inside the rear cockpit to make web surfing and posting online easier as well.